"Registration/unregistration of third-party IO filter storage providers fails on a host" warning in vCenter

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• vCenter reports the warning "Registration/unregistration of third-party IO filter storage provider fails on a host."

• Login to the vCenter server via ssh as user root and navigate to the log file location /var/log/vmware/vmware-sps/sps.log
• The log file reports an error regarding unable to find the storage provider as shown below.

<Date and Time> [Timer-6] ERROR opId=sps-Main-xxxxx-277 com.vmware.vim.storage.common.VmodlErrorStrings - Unable to find the storage provider with provider id xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<Date and Time> [Timer-6] ERROR opId=sps-Main-xxxxxx-277 com.vmware.vim.sms.policy.SyncPolicyManager - [getProvider] Unable to find the storage provider with provider id xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.x

Cause

1. The registration failure is due to "iofiltervpd" running on the host
2. Login to the ESXi host as user root via putty/ssh session. Run the command to verify the status of the service.
   [root@<ESXi-hostname>:~] /etc/init.d/iofiltervpd status
iofiltervpd is not running.

Resolution

Start the IOFILTERVPD service on the ESXi host.

1. Login to the ESXi host as user root via putty/ssh
2. Run the command below to ensure the service is started.
   [root@<ESXi-hostname>:~] /etc/init.d/iofiltervpd start
iofiltervpd: iofiltervpd started (1)
   
   
3. Restart management agents on host. Ensure no active or pending tasks running on the ESXi host before restarting the below services.
   /etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/initd./vpxa restart
4. Reset the alarms to green by logging into the vCenter GUI --> Click on the ESXi host --> Monitor --> Triggered Alarms --> Select the alarm and Click on Reset to Green.

Additional Information

• The iofiltervpd daemon (IO Filter VASA Provider Daemon) on an ESXi host acts as a local VASA (vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness) provider specifically for vSphere APIs for IO Filtering (VAIO).
• It forms the crucial link between the ESXi host's I/O filtering capabilities and the vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service (SPS) running on vCenter Server.
• IOFILTERVPD service registers third-party I/O filters (installed via VIB on the ESXi host) as VASA storage providers in vCenter Server, making their capabilities discoverable within the Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) framework.
• This service helps the ESXi host in receiving I/O filtering parameters from vCenter SPS when a VM storage policy is assigned or updated, and instructs the kernel to attach the appropriate filter driver to the VM’s virtual disks